Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Reasons Why I Hate Anatomy

I wanted to write a post about this for at least a week now because the reasons why I hate anatomy aren't really for the obvious reasons. The amount of material isn't really terribly bad (yet) and honestly, the smell is not uber-unbearable. This is because we no longer use a purely formaldehyde-based preservative and use instead, an ethyl alcohol one. Also, my group's body (we named him Henry, after Lord Henry) has very little fat and is therefore not entirely gross to handle.

Anyway, here is my list:

1. I hate when they tell us things that are related to what we're studying but don't actually tell us what those related things do. Or where they are. Or what they're for. Except in relation to the thing we're studying. This happens quite a lot. Sometimes, they'll even say, "oh, you'll learn about this structure a little later, so don't worry about it." Except we're responsible for that structure NOW --not later!

2. Related to #1, I hate it when they tell us we're not responsible for something.... except we are. This is an impossible standard because we're not required to learn EVERY artery, vein, and muscle in the body - it's just too much and not very relevant to becoming a physician. So they tell us the important ones and sometimes say we don't have to know certain things. Except we do have to know them. Except when we don't. See what I'm getting at?

3. I hate it when they keep referring to an idea and say, "Oh but you'll get this lecture in a couple of weeks from Dr. X so don't worry about it now." I hate it because, invariably, they will talk about this idea again. And again. And again. And I still have not had that lecture telling me what exactly it is. Can't I just have that other lecture first? PLEASE?

4. I hate it how there are many ways to say the same thing in anatomy... BUT THEY NEVER TELL US THAT THEY'RE REFERRING TO THE SAME THING. I was going around for the longest time worrying about the difference between the "accessory nerve" and "cranial nerve #XI" except... they're the same thing. Somehow, I'm just supposed to know.. or figure it out that they're referring to the same thing. WTF. Such a waste of time on my part to figure it out when they could just tell me.

So my theme here is, I believe anatomy is exceedingly poorly structured. Let me reiterate, exceedingly poorly structured. I guess there is no helping it since everything is interconnected in the human body and you must always be faced with more than the scope of what you're studying in the immediate term. I suppose there is no such thing as an "isolated" body part. But then, maybe that's just why I Hate Anatomy. Because everything is always supremely confusing.

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What's I'm studying now: serratus anterior

6 comments:

  1. Haha, I googled "I hate anatomy" and I found this. I happened to be making flashcards for the muscles of forced inspiration (serratus anterior). Funny.

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  2. We are supposed to know very specific details about things that they never tell us, and so we must leaf through the various books that are required for the course to find the information. This takes forever.

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  4. I am studying nursing. I love studying every topic of anatomy and physiology except for the anatomy of the Muscular and Skeletal system. I Googled "I hate muscular anatomy" as well to see if there was anyone else who felt the same way. It's good to know that there are others who dislike it as well :).

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  5. Hahaha... same as the other person here who said they googled "I hate anatomy" and got this. I am 100% with you that this class is EXCEEDINGLY POORLY STRUCTURED. It's like they throw out hundreds of body parts and random facts and then expect us to somehow cobble together a working picture of the human body-- why did no one ever bother to organize this material? Even in a way as simply as as "we are going to learn all the muscles that make you breathe," or "we are going to learn all the arteries," just SOME FORM OF ORGANIZATION besides thorax/lower limb/upper limb etc. Its like some professor just cobbled together random notes and google images throughout the year and then ran them out of order through the copier. UGH!! Anyway, thanks for your rant and thanks for letting me ramp :)

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